Jarrett Notes: Manifest Destiny, pp. 228-232

America Expands Westward

  • Treaty of Paris, 1783 signed to end American Revolution against Britain.
  • Borders: Mississippi River to the west, Canada to the north, and Florida to the south
  • Northwest Ordinance (1787): law that established orderly procedures for the admission of new states

Louisiana Purchase, 1803 – The beginning of westward expansion

  • Purchased from France
  • doubled the size of the US
  • gave US control of the port of New Orleans

The Purchase of Florida, 1819

  • Adams-Onis Treaty
  • US purchased Florida from Spain for $ 5 million.

“Manifest Destiny”

  • Believed that Americans were a “chosen people” with a divine mission to spread democracy, Christianity, and western culture to the Pacific
  • would also strengthen security and provide economic opportunities

Chart: Political, Economic and Social Roots of “Manifest Destiny”

  • Expanding Democracy: their democratic republic would serve as an example to the world
  • Security: would discourage threats from rival powers
  • Pioneering spirit: individualism admired by Americans
  • Romanticizing the West: paintings, popular prints and literature showed the West as an idea of nature
  • Future Prosperity: farmers in Texas and gold in California

Oregon Territory (1846)

  • Pioneers moved along the Oregon Trail
  • to fertile Willamette Valley in Oregon
  • covered wagons
  • treacherous – 20,000 died

The Mormons in Utah

  • Founded by Joseph Smith during the Second Great Awakening
  • Driven out of several states due to their religious beliefs
  • Brigham Young led them to the Great Salt Lake, Utah
  • Cultivated area through irrigation

The Annexation of Texas (1845)

  • Increasing numbers of Anglo-AmericansMexican fear of losing control
  • Fighting erupted at Gonzalez over a cannon
  • Mexican Dictator Santa Anna slaughtered Texans at the Alamo and Goliad
  • Texans declared independence from Mexico
  • Sam Houston led Texans to victory in the Texas Revolution
  • Texas’ annexation to the US was delayed because the new state would be a slave state and the US feared war with Mexico
  • President James K. Polk promised to annex Texas and get the Oregon Territory - extended the existing border with Canada (the 49th Parallel, 49°N latitude) to the Pacific Ocean

US-Mexican War (1846-1848)

  • Over a border dispute: US – Rio Grande; Mexico – Nueces River
  • US troops marched to Mexico City and defeated Mexico
  • Mexican Cession: Mexico gave up the lands of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico Colorado and Wyoming in the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo for $15 million

Gadsden Purchase (1853)

  • Completed the US’s expansion in the 1853
  • Pres. Franklin Pierce Purchased from Mexico for $10
  • to get land for southern route for a transcontinental railroad

The California Gold Rush

  • Forty-niners: gold seekers who arrived in California during the Gold Rush
  • Effects of the Gold Rush in California:
  • California’s population increased statehood
  • California became a new destination for settlers moving westward

Westward Expansion Poses a New Challenge

  • new issue: Should these newly acquired territories permit or prohibit slavery? (Mexico had already abolished slavery)
  • a new free state would upset the balance of free and slave states in Congress